The 2016 winners for the Architecture at Zero competition—and the competition’s up-to-$25,000 prize—have been announced.

This year’s competition focused on the development of zero-net energy (ZNE) student housing for the San Francisco State University campus in California. Entrants were asked to create an overall site plan to accommodate the erection of 784 housing units and attendant programs like a student services center, food hall, and child care facility. The schemes were also asked to address parking issues. Further, the competition brief compelled participants to develop the design of one particular building from their proposal to a greater level of detail in order to convey ZNE performance compliance and to provide documentation attesting to these performance standards.

The competition is focused on fostering the development and proliferation of ZNE design due to an impending California state law requirement calling for all new single-family residential construction to be ZNE by 2020 with all new commercial construction to follow suit by 2030.

Competition winners were appropriated based on two categories: those submitted by professional architecture firms and those submitted by students. Within each applicant category, winning entries were selected at the “special recognition,” “citation,” “merit,” or “honor” awards levels.

Winners for student entries:

Special Recognition Award: Sharing and Living by a student team from Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan.  

Merit Award: Communal Operations by Steven Loutherback, Texas Tech.

Honor award: Energized Canopy by Romain Dechavanne, Ecole Nationale Superior d’Architecture in Grenoble, France.

Winners for professional entries:

Citation Award: Piezien Circuit by Modus Studio, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Merit Award: Nexus by Dialog in Vancouver, Canada.

Merit Award: Fog Catcher by LITTLE in Los Angeles.

For more information on the Architecture at Zero competition, see the competition website.